Essence Nail Polish in English Rose and Time For Romance

I've been a wee bit unwell from one thing and another for about a month now and I find that when that happens I tend to cocoon myself- literally, cocoon. As in: two quilts, an electric blanket, my happy sushi pjs and old movies. Cake also features quite strongly. As this is the case it's only a matter of time before I start to resemble an old hobo, shuffling around the house in my slanket, blowing my nose. Yes, I'm just THAT glamorous. Today, I started to make a start on my grand reentrance to society (if society will take me back) by painting my nails..as I said, it's a start.
And so to the beautiful polish that caught my eye in the chemists at the weekend as I stocked on up Ibuprofen and Olbas Oil (again, glamour). These little beauties are Essence quick drying "Colour and Go" polishes, only 1.79 each (cutest bottles ever by the way).

I love this formula, it's super easy to apply (nice wide brush), dries really fast and looks lovely and glossy. English Rose is a lovely pinky/rose/mauvey matte- very pretty on the nail. I was especially impressed with the glitter, Time for Romance, which is a purple based gel containing small and slightly larger circular pink glitter pieces. This applies so well- unusual for a glitter polish like this with glitter pieces this size. I applied two coats of English Rose first as a base colour, although to be honest, one coat would probably have been enough as this was streak free. Old habits die hard! I then applied one coat of Time for Romance, although again, the colour in this was great- two coats on it's own would make for a very pretty nail also. I then threw on two layers of Rimmel top coat, eh voila!

This is an ideal Autumn look and I just can't stop looking at my nails, as tragic as that sounds. They're just so sparkly..and pink. My inner 8 year old is very happy indeed..although not as happy as she'd be if a My Little Pony came with the nail polish too, obviously.

Ojon Shampoo, Conditioner, Hair Serum and Finishing Spray

I'd been wanting to try Ojon for a while but I had fared pretty badly with Morrocanoil Shampoo and Conditioner (more on that at a later date) so was a bit wary of the whole hair oil phenomenon. Having said that, I absolutely love the K'erastase Elixir Ultime oil so I said I'd try Ojon's 4 piece starter kit of shampoo, conditioner, serum and hairspray.

Ojon describe their damage reverse range as "the ultimate do-over for damaged hair", "helps to restore health to hair exposed to chemical-processing, sun or excessive heat styling" and "90% said hair was healthier looking in a consumer study". So far, so good.
The starter kit contains 4 bottles- mini sizes of shampoo (60mls. "To help repair damaged hair in the shower, unwinds tangles to prevent breakage, smoothes, hydrates and helps restore health"), conditioner (60mls, "Helps seal in moisture and create the perfect buffer against daily damage. Instantly detangles") and restorative finishing spray (67mls).
The craic with Ojon products is that they contain pure Ojon Oil (retrieved from the nuts of the Ojon tree. There's also a big mad long winded story on their website about a trip to the rainforest, a machete and a 500 year old tradition. I'll let you look that up for yourself, otherwise we'll be here all night), which apparently is "nature's hair-repairing golden elixir" along with various other oils, all designed to strengthen weakened, dry, damaged hair. So that's me then. My hair is in bits.
Unfortunately, I just didn't get on that well with these. My hair is quite thin so I think using the shampoo, conditioner and serum together may have been too much for me, they kind of loaded my hair down and instead of leaving my hair bouncy and shiny- like the extremely happy looking lady on the box, it ended up lank and sad looking. Boo.
The finishing spray, which "provides lightweight hold and conditioning for a natural finish and shine" is basically just a fancy hairspray. It did the job grand but I wouldn't repurchase this on it's own- a can of Elnett would be just as effective if not more so and certainly much cheaper.
On the plus side, they all smell lovely- a nice light florally scent and are a handy size for travelling, which I will be using them for. Also, I like when brands sell mini collections like this, it gives you a chance to try out their products without spending a small fortune on getting all the regular sizes. I got this set on the House of Fraser website a couple of months ago and I've gone back to check the price for this but it appears to be gone. It is still on the Ojon website, but the price is in US Dollars- 39 to be exact. Other than HoF though, Ojon is also stocked in Arnotts, if you don't want to buy online.

Horror books!! AAOOOOHHH!! (scary noise)

Yes, it's that time of the year. Oh how I love Halloween. To get properly in the spirit of things, here's some scary books that can be read in the run up to the big day/night so that the whole month is spent in terror mode

Any Stephen King Book:
Or short story for that matter. He's not called the master of horror for nothing. I would suggest any of the classics- Misery, Carrie, Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary, It and my personal favourite- The Shining. Short story wise- the Mist is pretty great. King's books tend to be massive tombs of things so it may be unrealistic to put these on a list of books to read before the end of the month, but nonetheless they are worth reading in general.

The Woman in Black- Susan Hill
This is a gothic horror (written in 1983, interestingly enough) about a sinister ghost (i.e not a friendly one) in a small English town who foreshadows the deaths of children. Shudder. Recently this was made into a film starring yer man from Harry Potter and before that had been adapted into a play. I've seen both and believe me when I say that this story is bloody terrifying. Well worth reading the book if you haven't yet.

Rosemary's Baby- Ira Levin
If you haven't read this or seen the film of the same name (which is also rather brilliant), it's the story of a young married couple who move into their apartment in an old Gothic (yes more gothic) building in New York, a building with a disturbing history of witchcraft and murder- this can only lead to bad things, which inevitably it does. I won't give away any more than that. I've read all of Levin's books (including the Stepford Wives and the Boys from Brazil) and although this one in particular is out and out horror, his others all have a general air of creepiness too so would also qualify for some good Halloween reading.


Something Wicked This Way Comes- Ray Bradbury

Two boys visit a creepy travelling carnival that comes to their town one October, run by the terrifying "Mr Dark". Nothing scarier than a nightmarish carnival, I always say. There's nothing else I can say about this one really, you just have to read it and find out!

Other good options include The Passage by Justin Cronin (a dystopian vampire thriller), old school classics like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, modern classics like The Silence of the Lambs, Interview with the Vampire and unexpected offerings like American Psycho and We Need To Talk About Kevin (to be fair, the last two aren't actually "horrors" as such, but are fairly scary in parts, ideal if you like your horror more diluted. Although, having said that, American Psycho is seriously disturbing..you have been warned). Enjoy!

Haven't Had a Dream in a Long Time..

If like me you are a fan of The Smiths and/or Joy Division ("fan" doesn't really cover it where I'm concerned..) then you'll enjoy these art cards from the Spotted Sparrow.

The company makes vintage style cards, stationery and affordable art- often in a cool mix of victorian illustrations, newspaper pages and the titles of well known 1980's songs. These are available from not on the high street.com, one of my favourite websites to pick up slightly unusual gifts. The option to have the company print a personal message inside the card and send it directly to your loved one is also available and would make a pretty cool birthday card for the music lover in your life. They also have "Shoot that Poison Arrow Through my Heart" and "You Spin Me Right Round Baby, Right Round" titles, which I love too but the pictured song titles above are two of my all time favourites so it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to see these.
It's fair to say I was born in the wrong decade.
Both of these cards are available in large prints, ready to be framed and hung but I specifically wanted the smaller cards to hang on a narrow wall in my hall. My only fear is that every time I pass these I'll burst into song, something that I'm sure Dr Fancy Pants will be only delighted about..

Laura Mercier Invisible Loose Setting Powder

A sales assistant applied this powder for me when I was trying something else out on the Laura Mercier counter a couple of months back.

I hummed and hawed over whether to get it or not but finally gave in when HoF had a beauty sale online recently. That was a while ago, so it's now back to its original price of around 35 euro for 11.34g..which is a lot for a face powder but not that surprising for Laura Mercier.
A little of this goes a long way though so not bad value. The blurb with this is:

"invisible formula that works for all skin tones, from light to deep..new powder contains unique light-reflecting, micro-refined spherical silica powders that help create a soft-focus appearance, diminishing the look of fine lines and imperfections while visibly smoothing skin."

Grand. That clears that up. So basically, it's an odourless, colourless powder that sets foundation and eliminates shiny areas. The powder is white in the container but once on the face, is like I said, colourless (as seen in the above photos, left and blended- right).

While I like this and it does what it says on the tin, my one major gripe with it is that no matter how I apply it (mouth firmly closed), I somehow always end up with some residue in my mouth and it tastes horribly chalky- something I've never had a problem with when using a setting powder before and certainly something I could live without. The brand also recommends that you use the accompanying fan brush, so I also got that. This is a lovely brush and works perfectly but to be honest, a cheaper version of this would work just as well. While my skin doesn't feel any drier from using this, it has the sensation of being dry cause of the grittiness of the powder on my lips..bleugh, just thinking about it is disturbing. Because of that I'll probably reserve this just for when the old visage is looking particularly shiny.